Karabakh demographics

Density 1.0× span

Demographics over time · Karabakh · share of population

Armenian
Azerbaijani

All observations · 22 rows

Year	Group	Share	Population	Source	Notes
1823	Armenian	22%	—	Kameralnoe opisanie Karabakhskoi provintsii, 1823 (Survey of the Karabakh province)	Karabakh khanate as a whole. ~78% Muslim and ~22% Armenian; the Armenian population was concentrated in the mountainous core.
1823	Azerbaijani	78%	—	A History of Qarabagh: An Annotated Translation of Mirza Jamal Javanshir Qarabaghi's Tarikh-e Qarabagh
1823	Armenian	22%	—	A History of Qarabagh: An Annotated Translation of Mirza Jamal Javanshir Qarabaghi's Tarikh-e Qarabagh	Karabakh khanate as a whole. Mountain Karabakh ~85% Armenian; lowland districts ~90% Muslim.
1823	Azerbaijani	78%	—	Kameralnoe opisanie Karabakhskoi provintsii, 1823 (Survey of the Karabakh province)
1828	Azerbaijani	64%	—	A History of Qarabagh: An Annotated Translation of Mirza Jamal Javanshir Qarabaghi's Tarikh-e Qarabagh
1828	Armenian	35%	—	A History of Qarabagh: An Annotated Translation of Mirza Jamal Javanshir Qarabaghi's Tarikh-e Qarabagh	After the post-Turkmenchay 1828-30 Armenian repatriations from Persia and the Ottoman Empire, the Armenian share of the Karabakh khanate rose substantially.
1878	Azerbaijani	49%	—	Caucasus Calendar (Каменский Календарь / Кавказский календарь), 1846-1917
1878	Armenian	50%	—	Caucasus Calendar (Каменский Календарь / Кавказский календарь), 1846-1917	Late-Imperial Karabakh: the Armenian population had reached approximate parity with the Muslim by the 1880s, in part through continued highland natality.
1897	Armenian	53%	—	First General Census of the Russian Empire, 1897	Karabakh region (broad Russian Imperial sense). Mountain districts were ~85% Armenian; lowland districts overwhelmingly Muslim. Aggregate.
1897	Azerbaijani	45%	—	First General Census of the Russian Empire, 1897
1926	Armenian	56%	—	All-Union Soviet Census of 1926	Karabakh as a whole (mountain plus lowland, post-1923 NKAO + surrounding districts of Azerbaijan SSR).
1926	Azerbaijani	42%	—	All-Union Soviet Census of 1926
1959	Armenian	50%	—	All-Union Population Census of 1959
1959	Azerbaijani	48%	—	All-Union Population Census of 1959
1989	Armenian	25%	—	All-Union Soviet Census of 1989	Historical Karabakh as a whole (mountainous NKAO plus the seven adjacent districts of Soviet Azerbaijan). NKAO was 77% Armenian; the seven surrounding districts were essentially 100% Azerbaijani; the aggregate sits ~25% Armenian.
1989	Azerbaijani	75%	—	All-Union Soviet Census of 1989
1994	Armenian	95%	—	Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War	After the 1992-94 Armenian capture of NKAO and the seven surrounding districts, the Azerbaijani population of those districts was displaced (UNHCR registered approximately 700,000-800,000 displaced).
1994	Azerbaijani	5%	—	Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War
2020	Armenian	50%	—	Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War	After the 2020 Second Karabakh War, Azerbaijan retook the seven surrounding districts, reversing the 1994 displacement. Approximately equal shares again.
2020	Azerbaijani	50%	—	Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War
2024	Armenian	0%	—	UNHCR registration data, displacement from Nagorno-Karabakh	After the September 2023 operation, the residual Armenian population of mountainous Karabakh (~120,000) fled to Armenia within a week. The Karabakh region as a whole is now wholly under Azerbaijani administration.
2024	Azerbaijani	99%	—	AzStat and government reports on resettlement of Karabakh and surrounding districts, 2021-2024

All observations · 22 rows §

All observations · 22 rows